Mariners & Foxes 29

When the evening meetup of the Hinami players concluded after a few light training drills on a small rented pitch by the center of the main town, the school allotted the students another free couple of hours.

“Woah…”

Totori looked up in awe at the towering structure that seemed to stretch further than the eye could see. Of course, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but the Nagashima Mariners' home stadium was truly immense.

Upon seeing it, Reo couldn't help but think that it rivaled true professional pitches. It was well-structured, intricately painted, and grand in every imaginable way.

What are we even doing here?

Reo suddenly remembered. He realized that expecting to avoid anything football-related while in the company of such a group might have been overly optimistic on his part.

"Come on, we need to check out our tickets," Shuna urged, ushering the two on and pointing down a few checkpoints amidst a sea of people. Thankfully, they had already procured tickets for the Nagashima Mariners' game against the Inari Foxes. Apparently they wanted to scout their would-be opponents, and pay a visit to the biggest stadium in Shinrin. Of course, Maemi was here to have a few article ideas apart from the Hinami game tomorrow, and Risa, well…

She was probably interested in it too?

And naturally, who was Reo to refuse them all?

❖ ⚽ ❖

As the group of six found their seats on a stand behind one of the goals, they breathed a sigh of clear relief.

That was hectic…

A stadium with a capacity of around 50,000 was bound to be like that, yet the scale of it still exceeded their expectations. The rings of stands extended into their view, closed off by a large roof, save for the pitch itself. Blue and white lights illuminated the lower canvas of the roof in anticipation of the game.

“So what do we know about the teams, miss analyst?” Reo asked, thinking he should at least enjoy the game since he was there.

“Hm-hm, glad you asked Reo-kun.” Shuna, the analyst in question, grinned smugly, reaching for her glasses. Both for analytic purposes, as well as for watching the game.

“Nagashima Mariners are one of two teams based in Nagashima, the second being Tetsudo the team we will be facing tomorrow. The Mariners are a team that mostly rely on their defensive structure, and aim to hit hard on fast counter attacks. Their coach is an Italian man that moved here for the sake of his Japanese wife.”

“Wow, you even know the gossip…”

“Word gets around here faster than you’d think!” Totori affirmed Reo’s cheeky comment.

Just then, a voice that resembled that of the Hinami stadium riled up the home crowd through the speakers.

“Are we readyyy Mariners?!”

“Aye, captain!”

The crowd replied back in unison. Soon, the man started listing the players that would be starting for their team tonight, and every name was followed by a thunderous cacophony of applauses.

“Nagashima Mariners are one of the best teams in the league, and they’ve won numerous titles. For now their most standout players are…”

“Number 11, Kensaku Yagi!”

“Aye!”

“One of the two Yagis, is undoubtedly a star player for them. He’s quick, dribbles well and likes tricks despite playing as a striker.”

Despite the easy explanations Shuna was giving paired with the team announcer, Reo’s mind was still hang up on her choice of words.

“One of two Yagis…?”

“Number 10, Eishiro Yagi!”

“Aye!”

“That’s his twin brother, the other Yagi.” Totori could not stand idly by without adding his own bit of trivia too. Shuna nodded, thankful for the help.

“He’s much less agile, and relies mostly on strength and one-touch finishes to score the goals.”

A pair of twins up front that complimented each other perfectly… Reo could see why these two might be a handful for defenses.

“Anyone else? Or is it just the attacking duo?”

“Believe it or not—“

“And the captain, number 4, Rintaro Shuujima!”

“Aye, aye!”

The last player to be announced was the captain of the team.

“That’s him.” Shuna pointed, as the players took to the field and everybody rose to their feet to make their support known through various cheers and shouts.

Number 11, Kensaku, the trickster twin seemed to have half his hair dyed blonde, in contrast to its natural blue color. Next to him, his brother with the 10, Eishiro had his own blue hair professionally slicked back. The number 4, who was just announced, Shujima, adjusted the captain’s armband on his arm, training his sharp blue eyes forward. His face was sharp and his brown hair buzzed down to barely visibility.

Reo’s eye remained fixed on the captain.

“Number 4, meaning, he’s a…”

“A center back, yeah.” Shuna nodded, offering a few claps too.

A star player being a defender, and a center back to boot… That was a first.

“Despite what you might think!” Totori interjected, “He’s not JUST great at defending, he’s also fast and knows how to pass the ball well. The fact Nagashima play with 3 center backs helps him push up the field more!”

There it was. Totori’s usual tactical geeky talk.

“A defender who pushes up field…” Reo muttered, “That sounds like fun.”

He took extra care to lower his voice for that last part. Nagashima was certainly a very unique team, and the fact they were one of the best teams in Shinrin was testament to the fact of how well their plan worked out on the pitch despite the slight peculiarity on paper.

He looked on towards the pitch, eyeing the team wearing a blue and black striped attire, while the opposition sported a full orange kit.

Blue for the Mariners, Orange for the Foxes…

“We are back.”

A few moments before kickoff, Toraichi and Risa returned to their seats. Their vacant seats. Where did they ever leave?

“Didn’t know you up and left.” Reo raised a brow.

“Well it looked like your tactical talk would go on for a quite a while…” Toraichi shrugged, biting down on the straw of his fizzy drink.

“I am here! I was always here! Noting down everything!” Maemi raised her hand energetically, her notepad already full of freshly jotted notes.

When the referee blew the whistle for the game to begin, Reo leaned back on his seat and started to observe the match.

“Do we know anything about Inari Foxes?”

“Not a lot. Their coach had his first season last year…” Totori scratched his chin. It was rare to see him not knowing everything there is to know about a team.

“I hear they play very aggressively, with hard pressing and fast attacks.” Toraichi instead, gave his view.

“I think that’s true. Since the new coach took over we’ve never played against them so I hardly had to do any analyzing.” Shuna’s brows knitted together.

“I believe I know a few things! Their best players are a Latin American midfielder, a Chinese striker and a very fast and strong wing back!”

“Latin American? Chinese?” Reo was clearly baffled.

“That rings a bell. I think it was Javier Kishinuma. His father is 100% Japanese, and his mother a full bred Argentinian. As for the Chinese striker…”

“Wan Cho, right?” Totori smiled, “I think I’ve met him when we were younger! He’d come to Hinami for a few days before settling onto the island of Inari.”

“Hm…” Reo hummed as he observed. An attacking and a defending team, a team that’s not easy to pin down by tactics and another whose tricks you know all too well but can’t stop. A well-oiled sports car, and a reckless fast and strong motorcycle. Who would finish first?

The game was bound to be fun.

❖ ⚽ ❖

The match was starting out much more subdued than one might have thought at first. In the first minutes it was Inari who had the majority of possession, but Mariners’ rock hard defense left no room for any of the Foxes’ players to exploit. And when they lost the ball, the best team of Nagashima was very fast on the counter…

When the Mariners stole the ball back from Inari, a quick ball at the back of their defense was enough to make the crowd rise to their feet. Rentaro Shujima’s accuracy was pinpoint, and when Kensaku the trickster controlled the ball deftly with his chest, the Foxes were clearly on the backfoot. The Mariners’ quick transition from defense to attack had left their opponents vulnerable. And that was something the agile Kensaku could exploit.

“Ken!”

Of course he wasn’t alone. The fast wingback on the right, Namiki had come to support him, and his brother was already waiting inside the box.

“Heh!” Kensaku’s eyes shone with excitement, as he deftly controlled the ball with pace down towards the goal. When the Inari defenders came out to overwhelm him through sheer numbers alone, the attacker passed sharply down the wing for his teammate.

“Yosh!” With a sweet strike, Namiki brought the ball inside the box, where Eishiro, the strongest and tallest of two Yagi brothers, jumped in the air aided by the sheer power his quads commanded. The ball glided into the box, and the tall striker connected with it using the center of his forehead.

Everybody held their breath, as the ball changed trajectory, heading straight for the keeper’s corner. His arm stretched out in desperation, the round goddess barely grazing his fingertips.

Crash.

“GOAAAAAAAAL!!!”

The stadium roared in pure ecstasy. The first moment of weakness from one of two teams equaled the first blood for the night. Were Nagashima really gonna have a field day tonight?

“Goaaaaal For the Mariners! Number TEEEN! EISHIROOO YAAAAAGI!”

While the announcer was having the time of his life, everyone silently understood that the team in blue and black looked way more composed and clearly seemed to outmatch the excited but otherwise shallow Foxes.

“Heh, this might just be a thrashing.” Toraichi scoffed, passing on his judgement when the celebrations around the neutral Hinami residents died down.

“Don’t be so eager to say that.” Shuna shook her head, and Maemi nodded along almost too eagerly.

“She’s right, idiot Onii-chan!”

“Wha…?” While Toraichi was simply flabbergasted that he was catching strays, Reo found himself nodding along with the girls.

“Right.” He nodded, “There may be more than meets the eye with Inari…”

“How so?”

“I’m intrigued to know too.”

Totori and Risa didn’t let that comment drop, as they looked at the young man who had his eyes fixed on the team in orange.

The players, the coach. They all looked strangely calm and composed. No jitters, no nervousness. It felt like they almost…

Knew what they were doing.

But it couldn’t be, right? They were losing after all.

Yet Reo noticed the look on the number 10’s eyes. Tan skin, short black hair. Medium stature, that betrayed unwavering confidence in himself. That strange Argentinian 10… had a trick up his sleeve.

“Just a feeling.” Reo simply deduced, as the referee blew the whistle.

Reo’s hunches rarely came out to be wrong, and it seemed that this time too, the young man would come out on the right.

Not even a couple minutes after the goal, where one would most likely anticipate the losing team to be disorganized and their morale to drop, the Foxes did anything but.

Instead, the Mariners seemed to have loosened their defense, their focus dropping in a moment of blind reassurance.

We’ve got this in the bag.

The faces of everyone seemed to read, confidence unmatched. They were the bigger team after all, and they were leading early.

But football wasn’t always like that. More silverware and more quality players didn’t always guarantee victory. Yet that was also why it was arguably the best sport in the world. The outcome was NEVER predetermined.

Then, the Inari Foxes kicked into the next gear, with Javier managing to weave past Nagashima’s midfield. Yet even so there was no reason for the Mariners to panic. Their plan was to fall back and wait their opponent’s attack out.

Once he bypassed the middle of the field, the Argentinian found himself face to face with the blue wall of Nagashima, placed right before the ball, a few inches outside their box.

“Heh.”

Without an ounce of hesitation, the number 10 of the Foxes dashed straight for his opponents. Foolish, the Mariners thought, and realized that Inari didn’t have a plan whatsoever.

It was easy pickings. Or at least should have been…

“JAVI!”

The Chinese striker, who was deep into the opposition’s defense seemingly swallowed beneath a sea of blue, came out between two of the defenders. Without so much as another glance, Javier passed it straight for his teammate.

In instances like these, the attacker facing his own goal instead of the one he should be scoring in had no other option than to run out of the box, and avoid the players marking him. That is in normal circumstances.

Wan Cho, wasn’t particularly skilled with the ball, he wasn’t fast or fancy. He was slightly tall, and his stature betrayed clumsiness as clear as day, but one of the weapons he had in his arsenal was all a player like him needed. Reading the play.

And that’s what he did.

With a flick of his heel he sent the ball in the opposite direction in which he ran, just right for it to go in between the two defenders on his back. And of course, Javier Kishinuma, who had followed the whole play up until this point, made the run in between the bundle of bodies and managed to get ahold of the ball.

But still, their defense wasn’t as easy to pry open as that. Despite the great run from them both, the towering center backs gathered around the lone Argentinian amidst a sea of blue shirts.

He would have one, maybe two touches at most before he was closed off. Was he supposed to shoot? He barely had a sight at goal.

That didn’t matter to him. No matter the odds, he knew what he was capable. Two touches?

He only needed the one.

As the ball crawled in front of him, Javier dragged his foot back, and shot so powerfully, the defenders were left in awe. The ball whizzed just barely over the grass and crashed into the post of the goal, and inside the net so violently it shook by its sheer power alone.

“GOAAAAAAAALLL!”

The Inari Foxes, who were swallowed up from the deafening noise of the home crowd up until now could finally celebrate freely amidst the silence growing in the stadium.

Javier Kishinuma, the scorer, merely raised his fist in the air, and ran to retrieve the ball as calm as ever. He left the celebrations up to his teammates. For now, the score was only tied.

“Wow…” Totori was left speechless, and Toraichi too was in a similar boat.

“What the hell happened?”

“They really made it look so easy.” Maemi stopped taking notes for a moment, and gaped at the sight.

“Yet it was anything but.” Risa nodded, her straight face cracking just enough to reveal slight surprise.

“Shooting from such an angle with that power is definitely way harder than it looks.” Reo found himself agreeing, before turning to the silent Shuna, “What’s up? Hope you’re absorbing all that for your upcoming opposition analysis when we face them?”

“Oh shush you.” Shuna shook her head, “I am but… they seem very well trained tactically.”

“You think? How so?” Totori asked.

“They move fast and coordinated. They know when to press and when to attack. They seem like a handful to say the least.”

“What? You think we can’t beat them?” Toraichi raised a brow.

“…We need to prepare so we’ll be able to.” Despite the slight humorous tone of his, Shuna was dead serious.

Inari were in fact a very chaotic team to watch, pressing hard, passing fast and shooting at the drop of a hat. The ball constantly seemed to move to the next line of attack with each new pass. But that form of chaotic football had a tactical semblance beneath that was difficult to pull off.

And that kind of training, has turned the Inari Foxes into a giant-killing machine.

It wasn’t long before the orange foxes shook Nagashima once more. It wasn’t long before they capitalized on their opponent’s shock and disbelief, and went on to another devastating attack. This time a bad clearance from the Mariners found the Foxes as the recipient. Once more, the ball was played for the maestro, the puppeteer, Javier.

He got the ball, and never stopped running. With his left, he opened it up for his winger on the right, number 7 on his back. Said winger whipped it in effortlessly, flawlessly.

Mariners’ defenders were adept at clearing such balls, all they had to do was powerfully stop the enemy striker…

The enemy striker, who moved inside the box like no other. He knew where and when he needed to be, to simply push it in.

And thus the ball dropped.

“AH!”

But the defenders who followed the striker all the way to the front post, never stopped to think that the ball wouldn’t drop there in the first place.

All but one, that is.

When the ball traveled to the heart of the area, where the Argentinian 10 stood in front of goal once more, Shujima was there. That play was scaringly obvious for his trained eye. But reading it was one thing, and stopping it a whole other.

Nevertheless, with his body, he managed to press the Foxes’ 10 so he was off balance as he shot.

Yet with a powerful left, he managed to strike the ball towards the lone keeper between the sticks. He stretched as he dove to the side, time seemingly frozen as those painful seconds with the ball suspended ticked on.

“OH!”

The crowd rose, about to celebrate. After all, their defender’s awareness had enabled the keeper to make contact with the ball in the nick of time, pushing it to the side and away from the net he so readily guarded. But that’s exactly where Wan Cho came in.

Right place, right time. The rebound of the save was all his, and there was no one that could take it away from him, No Shujima, no goalkeeper. He beat everyone to it, and passed the ball into an empty net.

“GOAAAAAL!”

Another one for the Foxes, who had taken the game by the scruff of the neck and turned it on its head as simple as pie.

“What the hell is happening?!” Totori cried, his eyes seemingly spinning by the sheer amount of surprises this game had to offer.

“Just like that, eh?” Toraichi muttered, but Shuna shook her head.

“It’s not over just yet.”

Surely her words were true, but that display from the Foxes was devastating. They looked to be in tip top shape, ready for anything and everything the game might throw their way.

The cross came, the striker dragged all the markers away from the actual spot where the ball would land, serving as the decoy and despite Nagashima’s captain reading of the play, Inari was just too clinical.

And just like that, the first half had ended.

❖ ⚽ ❖

“That was embarrassing!”

Back in the Mariners’ dressing room, Marco Russo, the Italian coach, didn't shy away from making his disappointment known to his players. The subjects of rightful critique in question all held their heads low, knowing exactly what went wrong in the first half.

“We cannot be caught disorganized like this again! We need to seize the initiative come the second half! Do you understand me?”

“Yes coach!” Everybody replied in unison, first and foremost the captain of the team, Rintaro Shujima. He knew he couldn’t afford to slack here. He was aware of what went wrong, and even more aware of what he needed to do to fix it.

Cool head.

There was still a whole half of football remaining, and they had to make it count.

❖ ⚽ ❖

When the time came for the two teams to take the field once more, the atmosphere within the Nagashima Mariners’ midst felt different. Maybe it was the combined confident air of the fans that they’d find a way out of the corner and secure one or maybe two goals more that made everyone feel this way. Maybe it was the half time team talk, or maybe a combination of all the above.

What mattered though, was the result. In the second part of the game Nagashima Mariners played in their usual manner. Calm, composed, and quick-witted.

But Inari were also as compact as before, aggressive and aware. The game turned into a wrestling match, for who would come out on top in the end.

“Inari must start defending lower now, right? They have the upper hand so…” Reo couldn’t help but inquire, while his girlfriend beside him shook her head.

“It doesn’t look like it. They play the exact same way they did in the first half.”

“They do!”

Totori nodded, counting on his fingers and analyzing the game, “Not one of their players has dropped lower to defend! They’re still maintaining the press!”

“That’s risky.” Toraichi affirmed.

“You can’t show weakness when you’re on top. When your plan works, you stick to it.” Risa explained the reasoning behind it, and found Maemi her new headline.

“That’s a great line Haneda-senpai!”

True enough, Inari didn’t relent at all, they fought as much as the first half, trying to disrupt the Mariners’ play. But in contrast to the first half, the team of Nagashima didn’t seem to be the same shaken and disorganized side from the first few minutes.

That’s why the game was an intense brawl for the most part of it. Nagashima created more than the first half, but not as much as they would have liked.

But sometimes, all it took was a moment of leadership, brilliance. One such moment was when Nagashima had their second corner kick in quick succession, after the fervor of the crowd had messed with the clear head of Inari’s defenders. Shujima the Rock, and captain of the Mariners occupied the enemy box with only a single goal in mind.

Score.

The ball was whipped into the box, but sadly for the team in blue the attempt was mediocre, causing Inari to clear. Yet the Mariners wouldn’t give up. They managed to retrieve it once more, just outside the area.

“Here!”

Shujima called for the ball, while still outside the box. His teammate, Eishiro passed without a second thought. The defense was wary, so they didn’t press. Shujima was a center back, and defenders couldn’t do much outside the box and in plays where the ball was not in the air.

Fearing the cross everyone moved like they would in an aerial ball, and so Rintaro found the space to dribble it.

“No damn it! Close him off!” The man serving as coach for the Foxes, Shuto Nakagami, snarled at his defenders. That wasn’t what they had planned. Shu knew exactly what the opposition captain was capable of.

And Rintaro didn’t hesitate. With a powerful left, he struck the ball with power and rising altitude. The ball soared, and dropped perfectly in front of goal. Despite clipping the crossbar, the shot was just too good to be stopped.

The Mariners held their breath, and before the sweet sound of the net could resound…

“GOAAAAAAL!”

The crowd roared, and the Mariners ran to their captain to celebrate. Despite the second half growing stale, the finale was anything but.

“GOAAAAAL FOR THE MARINERS! NUMBER FOUUUR, CAPTAIN SHUJIMAAAA…”

“RINTARO!”

“Damn it!” Shuto Nakagami, the coach, kicked at the grass, his head jerking back in exasperation. In the heat of the moment, the defensive instincts of his players kicked in. He knew he hadn’t been their coach for long, but these errors hurt him all the same.

On the other hand, Marco Russo, remained stoic, but clapped for his team nonetheless.

“Bravo, Rintaro.” His straight face didn’t let anyone know of the relief he felt inside.

“Wow…”

When the match finally finished with the resounding blow of the referee, the astounding 2-2 result kept Totori nearly speechless.

“That certainly wasn’t boring.” Toraichi said, getting up from his seat and stretching widely.

“You can say that again...” Shuna smiled wryly at Maemi, who had nearly completed a whole notepad with keywords, descriptions, game plans and sketches of the pitch.

“Are you gonna write all that, Maemi-chan?”

“No! I don’t know if I’ll even include an article for them in Monday’s paper.” The girl smiled despite her shocking words.

“What a thorough waste of paper.” Risa sighed, but her underclassman shook her head.

“Hey, you don’t know when notes like these might come in handy!”

“Shall we go?”

“Yep, let’s.”

And that was how their eventful first day on Nagashima concluded. As his friends walked ahead and out of the stadium, Reo turned to look one last time, at the pitch he’d be playing on one day when the time came.

Both teams were absolutely powerful in their game plan, and knew how to work as a team when it mattered. Yet Reo couldn’t stop his mind from wandering.

Yeah, he couldn’t wait to face them.

But for now, he had the match against Tetsudo to work towards. And with every passing hour, the moment for that grew nearer.